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Travel Writing Competition Terms & Conditions

Competition Rules

By entering the competition you agree to be bound by these rules.

The competition is open to entrants aged 18 or over who have not previously been paid for a travel-related piece of writing published either in print or online. This does not include winning entries to travel-writing competitions for which the entrant received a cash prize. Employees and individuals connected with any company involved in the competition, including for the avoidance of doubt employees, contractors and authors of Bradt Travel Guides (“Bradt”) and the Competition Partners as defined below and members of the immediate family of the above people are not eligible to participate.

Winners of the overall prize in previous Bradt Travel Writing competition are ineligible to enter. Previous entrants (including finalists) are eligible for entry provided they meet the criterion of not having received payment for a piece of travel writing. Payments received for contributions to Bradt’s anthologies of short travel tales (The Irresponsible Traveller, To Oldly Go, Roam Alone and Beastly Journeys) are excluded from this clause.

No purchase is necessary.

The competition will be launched on Friday 21st September 2018. All entries must be received by midnight BST on the closing date, Sunday 25th of November 2018.

How to Enter

Only one entry per person is permitted. Joint entries are not allowed and entries on behalf of other people will be excluded.

To enter the competition you must submit a piece of writing of between 600 and 800 words on the theme: “Out of the Blue”, which must be a true story, based on your personal experience and written as a first-hand account, in the first person and in English.

Entries should be submitted as a Word attachment (with the file name of the title of your piece), and sent to travelwriting@bradtguides.com with the subject field ‘New Travel Writer of the Year’. The body of the email must contain your name, postal address, email address and telephone number and the following statement: “I confirm that I am an unpublished travel writer and have not previously received any payment for a piece of travel writing published either in print or online at the time of entry.” Please do not include any personal details on your Word attachment. The entries will be judged anonymously.

Your personal data will be shared with the competition partners and may be used by them and the promoters for marketing purposes if you indicate that you consent to this by adding “OPT IN” to the subject line of your email submission. Your data will also be used for Bradt to contact you about the outcome of the competition (including the shortlist) and forthcoming travel-writing opportunities.

Prizes

The First Prize (as defined below) will be awarded to the entry that the Judges consider to be the best in terms of the quality of the writing and adherence to the theme, and the two Runners Up prizes will be the two next-best entries judged in the same way. The Judges’ decision is final.

The three Finalists will be notified by phone or email in early 2019. The three Finalists will be invited to the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards prize giving ceremony (date TBC). If any of the three Finalists cannot attend the ceremony they will be notified of the winning entry by phone or email. Attendance at the awards ceremony is strongly encouraged, but no Finalist will be excluded because they cannot attend. Finalists will be responsible for their own travel to the ceremony and any accommodation required.

First Prize

The first prize for this competition is provided by Wexas Ltd. at the registered address of 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 PNT

The Winner should contact Wexas Travel at mail@wexas.com or 020 7590 0610 as soon as possible after the Winner is announced.

Prize includes:

Return flights

A 3-night stay at Wilderness Hotel Inari for 2 people inclusive of 2 nights’ accommodation in a wilderness hotel room and 1 night in an Inari Aurora Cabin

Any gratuities are at the winner’s discretion and will be paid locally. Gratuities are not covered by Wexas Travel.

The prize is for 2 adults sharing a hotel room.

The winner must be available to travel on the dates mentioned above

Wexas reserves the right to substitute the prize for an alternative holiday

Wexas booking terms & conditions apply

In addition to the Holiday Prize, the Competition Winner will receive a paid commission to write a piece for Wexas Traveller magazine. Publication of the Competition Winner’s commissioned piece shall be at the discretion of the Publisher of Wexas Traveller, Amy Sohanpaul.

Runners-Up Prizes

Two Runners-Up prizes will be awarded to the two Finalists who are not declared the Winner (the “Runners-Up”). They will each win a place on the Bradt Travel Writing Seminar to be held in London, run in conjunction with the leading travel writing training agency Travellers’ Tales. The prize does not include transport to the venue or any other expenses.

Other Rules about the Prizes

The Winner and two Runners-Up are responsible for organising valid passport(s), securing any necessary visas and complying with any relevant regulations or legislation or customs and immigration requirements relating to their prizes. The Winner and Runners-Up are also responsible for taking out adequate insurance and obtaining health advice about any vaccinations required and any other health-related matters relevant to their Prizes. Bradt accepts no responsibility for any costs associated with the Prizes and not specifically included in the prize descriptions.

The Winner and Runners-Up must communicate directly with Bradt (or Wexas, as relevant) about the Prizes.

All elements of the Prizes including, for the avoidance of doubt, dates and destinations are subject to availability.

The Prizes are non-exchangeable, non-transferable, and are not redeemable for cash or other prizes. We reserve the right to change the Prizes or to offer alternatives of similar value. In the event of cancellation by the Winner or Runners-Up, for whatever reason, no alternative prize or travel dates will be offered. Once a confirmed booking has been made, reservations may not be changed.

If any of the Finalists is unable to take up his or her prize for any reason, or if we have not been able, after making reasonable efforts, to make contact with one of the Finalists, we reserve the right to award the relevant prize (without notice to the first Finalist chosen) to an alternative entrant, in which case the first entrant chosen shall not be eligible for any share of the prize whatsoever. We shall not have any liability in such eventuality.

Intellectual property and other rules about entries

Your competition entry must be all your own work. It must not contain any third-party content or infringe the copyright of any third party and it must not be obscene, defamatory or in breach of any applicable legislation or regulations. We reserve the right to exclude entries from the competition that we consider, in our sole discretion, to be in breach of this clause.

Your entry must not have been published previously or entered in any other competition anywhere in the world before the Winner is announced. For the purposes of this competition, self-publishing – in print, digital, or blog form – will not be counted as an author having been published.

The Finalists grant Bradt an exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to first publication; and a non-exclusive licence to publish, syndicate, distribute, reproduce and exploit the material in all present and future media and formats and to sub-license these rights to others. For the avoidance of doubt there will be no payment for such licences.

We reserve the right to withhold any of the Prizes if the Judges decide, in their sole discretion, that there are no entries of a suitable standard.

Publicity

The promoters reserve the right to publish the names of the Finalists and the winning entries themselves, and the Finalists are required to give their full co-operation to all requests by the promoters in connection with publicity for the competition, their entry, the Prizes or otherwise.

Miscellaneous

Bradt reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to change the rules of the competition while it is running if it appears to Bradt that it would be equitable or appropriate to do so. This may include extending the closing date whereupon there will be an announcement of any such extension at the first reasonable opportunity.

No correspondence, unless initiated by Bradt, will be entered into or comment issued on any matters concerning the competition and no reasons given for any decision made by the Judges.

We shall not be liable for any circumstances beyond our reasonable control that prevent the competition being fulfilled, a Winner or Finalist being chosen, or any prize being taken up or fully enjoyed by a Winner or Finalist. We exclude liability to the full extent permitted by law for any cost, claims or losses howsoever caused that arise by reason of any person's entry into a competition or the award, or non-award, to them of a prize.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and interpreted according to English law and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with any disputes arising in connection with them.

Headings in these rules are for convenience only and shall not affect their interpretation.